


Sou-me School

by ghostpun



Category: BIRDMEN - 田辺イエロウ | Tanabe Yellow
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kinda?, M/M, also its just a fun get-together fic, basically an AU where Takayama never leaves and the kids are still in Japan and trying to be normal, cuz we need it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 05:19:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16402055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostpun/pseuds/ghostpun
Summary: Karasuma volunteers to teach Takayama now that he isn't in school anymore.





	Sou-me School

**Author's Note:**

> this was just a fun fic so idk if it even sounds good still!! plus it was made like 3 months ago but here it is anyways

Karasuma couldn’t believe it’s almost been a year since, well, everything.

What could be more boring as a seraph in middle school than that of being a seraph in high school? At least, that’s what he complains about to Kamoda every day.  
Now, adjusting the bag around his shoulders, he takes in what he’s doing. And honestly, what the fuck IS he doing? He’s about to just book it the other direction when he hears the familiar creak of the door, and Takayama peeks his head out.

“Uh, hello.” He blinks.

“Hey.” Karsuma half squeaks. “Can we talk?”

Takayama pushes the door open wider, and leans against the side.

“It couldn’t wait until the bird meeting?”

Karasuma almost laughs at the deja vu of the situation. “It’s actually not about that, it’s-” he grabs his bag and decides to just show him. He pulls out a school textbook and points at it, like that would answer the question.

Takayama stares at the book for a bit, blinks, then tilts his head slightly to the side. An annoyingly cute habit.

“I don’t understand.”

“I want to tutor you.” Karasuma blurts out before he can stop himself. He splutters as Takayama reacts with surprise. “I-I mean that- _shit_ -” He breathes in dramatically. “I know you’re not in school anymore. And you totally don’t have to if you really don’t want to, but continuing your education in mathematics and the sciences would be really beneficial for uh,” he clears his throat, “your line of work.”

He hands over the book to Takayama, shifts his feet, and continues. “I know you don’t want to go back to school, so I thought I would just, offer to reteach it to you outside of school? That way you still learn the stuff you want to, but you don’t have to be at school.”

Takayama stares at the math book in his hands.

“And I know I don’t have to do this but I want to. Besides doing this actually helps me remember,.” He fidgets with his hands, “Of course, it’s your decision, because, y’know, and I will never bring this up again if you don’t want to.”

Takayama glances at the book, to him, to back at the book again. Then, to Karasuma’s relief, he grins.

“Yeah, sure.”

Karasuma feels like breaking into a dance in the middle of the road, but that would be silly, so he doesn’t.

===

Teaching Takayama was a lot… easier than he expected.

Karasuma never doubted that his fellow comrade was intelligent, but he never expected him to be……smarter? Than him? It made sense why he got away with sleeping in class, he could ace subjects as long as he cared enough. He probably aced tests without studying, the bastard. Maybe Kamoda should’ve asked to copy off of him instead.

They sat side by side at the table, working on the papers Karasuma was assigned.  
Takayama slightly tilted Karasuma’s paper towards him, and taps to a previous problem.

“That’s the wrong property. It’s ASA, not AAS.”

Karasuma curses under his breath and erases the line

“Proofs can suck my ass.”

Takayama snorts softly and returns to his problem.

“And here I thought I was tutoring you.” Karasuma grumbles.

Takayama shrugged, but Karasuma could still see the smirk from the corner of his eye.

===

The Bird Club sat on the roof as usual, taking a break from their activities. Kamoda let out a whine, and laid flat on the floor with his math textbook over his face.

“Can math cause a blackout?” He grumbled.

“Maybe math IS a blackout” Sagisawa suggested.

“I’d rather take the killer plane” Karasuma states, jabbing his pencil in Sagisawa’s direction.

Sagisawa snickers and goes to grab Kamoda’s textbook. “What problem?”

“13. It’s a messssss.”

“Okay, yeah, this is a little tricky, won’t lie.” Sagisawa squints at the lines.

“Can I see?” Takayama asks.

“I don’t know, we wouldn’t have learned how to do this in middle school, so…”

“It’ll be fine.” Takayama smiles, taking the book from his hand.

Sagisawa watches the gears turn and is about to ask for it back when Takayama looks up and hands it back to him. “123, maybe?”

After looking at the problem again, Sagisawa is impressed to agree.

“Okay, did I miss something?” he laughs, “Have you been a secret math genius this whole time?”

Takayama laughs. “Not really. Karasuama showed me how to do it the other day.”

Well that is interesting, Sagisawa thinks, perking up at this information. “I didn’t know Karasuma was tutoring you!” Sagisawa’s tone shifts as he leaned slightly forward. And maybe he imagined it, but Takayama seemed to squirm

…as if embarrassed.

“It’s not that big of a deal.” Karasuma calls, looking up from his language homework.

“ _Right_.” Sagisawa cackles.

===

Later, in Sagisawa’s room, Karasuma throws a piece of crumpled paper at the other boy as he huffed: “You’re being ridiculous.”

“I think the only one being ridiculous here is _you_ ” Sagisawa sings, watching the paper fall at his feet.

“I literally have no clue how you see me teaching Takayama the equivalent of ‘dating’.”

“That’s because you’re as dense as a brick, dude.” He pauses from sketching in his notebook to stretch. “Even without my ability it’s obvious you two have a thing.”

Karasuma was glad he was too annoyed to be flustered. He rolled his eyes. “The only ‘thing’ we have is studying together.”

“So, study dates?”

“Fuck you.”

“Fine, okay, keep telling yourself that the only reason you wanted to teach Takayama was for his ‘education’ and not so you could hang out with him more.”

Karasuma didn’t reply, and shoved his head into his notebook, ears burning.

===

Karasuma flung his hands in the air. “I can’t figure out how to explain this to you properly. It’s like super complicated and it took all of class and I still don’t exactly get it.”

Takayama tapped his pencil aimlessly on the book as he watched Karasuma fume and scribble in his notes.

“I’ve tried diagrams, lists, pictures. I just can’t properly visualize it enough to even begin to explain. And I’d try to explain but how can _you_ get it if I don’t?”

“Do you remember what the teacher said in explaining it?”

“The gist of it, yeah.”

“Then why don’t you just tell me?”

Karasuma was going to punch him. “Excuse you-” he starts to say, as he turns, but stops when he notices Takayama’s hand outstretched towards him. “…Oh.”

“If you can’t form the words, just tell me this way.” Takayama’s slight smile was endearing, which, honestly? Did _not_ help Karasuma right now. Still, Takayama had a good point.

Hesitantly, he took Takayama’s hand, and tried his best to focus on the lesson. After a few seconds, Takayama picks up his pencil in his other hand and starts to write down notes. Really, Karasuma isn’t sure what to do. A few minutes pass by, and when Takayama pauses, Karasuma lifts up his hand. Yet Takayama immediately notices, and turns to look at him, and he instinctively grabs Takayama’s hand again.

It was pretty funny how quick he was to replace his hand. So much so that Takayama gave a snort of laughter. Which, in turn, caused Karasuma to laugh too.

And neither said another word about it for the rest of the session, hands still intertwined until Takayama got up to leave.

===

“Are you serious? You two held hands for the rest of the study stession and you _still_ aren’t dating?”

“….Maybe?”

“Karasuma Eishi, I love you, but you’re an idiot.”

“Hey!”

===

Knocking on the door to Takayama’s home had become a normality by this point. However, usually it was Takayama Sou answering, not his grandpa.

And yet, the senior Takayama had opened the door today.

It’s not like Karasuma had a problem with Takayama’s grandpa, quite the opposite. Karasuma absolutely loved Takayama’s grandpa, his wittiness and compassion had grown onto Karasuma like a nice flower. It made Karasuma slightly envious, that Takayama had such a kind guardian to watch over him.

Grandpa Takayama grinned and greeted Karasuma, before he shooed him inside.

Small talk, which Karasuma usually hated, wasn’t really all that bad as he sat and chatted while tea was being made.

“Sou is finishing a repair job,” the older man says, handing Karasuma a glass, “I’m sure he’ll be here any minute.”

Karasuma hummed, and took a sip. It wasn’t anything like the tea that Sagisawa had, but it tasted more like comfort and home, as he nestled the cup in his hands.

Some time later, the young Takayama came trotting through the door. He wiped his hands on the towel, but flung it over his shoulder when he noticed Karasuma.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Karasuma stands up. “It’s no problem.” He thanks Grandpa Takayama for the tea and company. He started to walk past Takayama, but stopped to grab a corner of the towel and wipe the grit off of Takayama’s cheek. “There,” He huffs. It had been bothering him since Takayama had walked in. Though whether the spark of electricity was from the interaction or the towel, he couldn’t say.

Takayama, admittedly, was shocked and a little flustered, but his face wouldn’t show that. That was common for him. A blank face, with only himself to know what he was feeling.

Takayama glances back at his grandfather, who gives him a thumbs-up and a wink, of all things. Ah, the one thing Takayama’s stoicness can’t escape: _familial embarrassment_. He visually flusters and quickly goes to follow his study partner as his grandfather chuckles behind them.

Later, Takayama cannot escape his grandfather and his playful inquiries about the “cute guest” and his “boyfriend, perhaps?”

===

The night was cool, and Karasuma really needed to cool off.

Leaving his desk behind, Karasuma launches himself from his window and into the air.

Gliding through the clouds, and watching as the city morphs into the sand of the beach, empty at night. The wind carries him, and he feels himself fall into a gentle rhythm, gliding up and down as he lazily circles around the city he’s grown up in.

He flutters and stops on the top of a high building, and sits as he gazes at the passing cars and the noises of the city. Despite the buzz of the city, his own head seems to beat louder.

From behind him, Karasuma can tell someone had landed.

It was either Sagisawa or Takayama, as it was too late for the others to be awake. But the quiet shadow and sound feet made it easy to tell it was Takayama. Sagisawa would have said something by now.

Takayama wordlessly sat next to his friend and looked at the sky, then at the city streets below.

Karasuma curls a bit more into himself.

“Y’know,” Takayama starts, voice soft. “I’ve noticed a big difference when I moved to this city.”

Karasuma looks at him through his peripheral, unchanging in position, but still signalling he was listening.

Takayama raised his inky hand to the dark sky. “The stars.”

“Yeah, pollution does that, gets rid of them all.” Karasuma murmurs.

“I’m not done.” Takayama continues. “The stars moved.” He lowers his hand to do a sweep of the lights of the city, “They couldn’t be seen from this sky, so they moved to the ground.” He smiles.

“Is there supposed to be a hidden message in that?” Karasuma implores.

“Maybe.”

Karasuma twists the words in his mind. This was the problem with Takayama, listening to him was like taking a class on poetry and abstractism. Usually it annoyed him, but he can’t say he didn’t enjoy trying to figure him out. It was like trying to catch a moving wave, the tide ebbing between his fingers. He could never completely catch it.

Karasuma hadn’t noticed that he was so deep in thoughts, sitting in silence for multiple minutes. Maybe they could’ve stayed like that all night, sitting in silence and watching the lights flicker.

Instead, Takayama stands up. “Come on,” and whips into the air. Karasuma follows in a heartbeat, letting the wind whip around his body as the two navigate through the clouds.

Floating on their backs, they look up at the sky, with the stars visible again.

 _Back there, as much as I appreciate your poetic woes, it really did sound like you thought the stars were beings, instead of just balls of gas far away_ , Karasuma tweets, not caring if Sagisawa hears.

 _It’s more fun that way_ , Takayama replies

 _This is why I’m tutoring you in science, not in Language_. Karasuma bites playfully. _Not that you even need it. Getting tutored must be a bore._ Why did he even accept?

 _I like your tutoring_. Takayama hums, light as air.

If it wasn’t for his wing’s instinct to keep him up, Karasuma might have fallen through the sky. Instead, he flips over and lets his legs dangle. It’s not like the statement was all that interesting, but the sheer bluntness and almost breathy laughter from Takayama had his stomach doing somersaults and his heart doing jumping jacks.

 _If only you liked doing homework as much as you liked my tutoring_. He teases back, dipping his toes into unknown waters.

Takayama hums in response, not denying it. That doesn’t help his heart, especially when Takayama glances back at him and allows himself to loop upright again.

If it weren’t for his own helmet, Karasuma’s blush would’ve been vulnerable. However, the damn things are slightly transparent, so he rushes forward ahead, and maybe slightly challenging Takayama to give chase, which he does.

===

Confessions were always silly to Karasuma.

When he thought of them, he imagined the ones you’d read in manga or watch on TV. Dramatic declarations at someone’s dying breath, from the top of a rooftop, by giving chocolates and hoping for the same.

That being said, Takayama Sou and Karasuma Eishi were neither the type to be like that. So really, confessing on accident was one of the few ways they’d actually go about it.

Karasuma didn’t mean to let it slip, he really did. He had tried so hard, and had been denying for so long. You can’t blame him, okay? When Takayama first came to Tokyo, he thought the new kid was _cute_. Accepting his crush was one thing, but actively squashing his feelings down everytime they had any mental link could be exhausting. He had hidden behind a _rock_ when Takayama surprised him that one time and, _goddamn_ , that was a close one.

But sometimes his mind drifts, and Karasuma would deny it if anyone accused him, but he really was a bit of a sap. He was teen boy whose emotional levels were heightened. He would often stare at his ceiling late at night, thinking about holding hands with, or maybe even kissing, a certain mysterious comrade.

And he hates to admit Sagisawa was right, but Karasuma had a slight ulterior motive to helping Takayama study math. While tutoring initially only lead to more flusters and bundles of nerves at first,Karasuma had chilled out eventually. And he blames it completely on this relaxation that after explaining a concept via hand holding, neither had let go. And that wasn’t that uncommon nowadays, but this time Karasuma had made the mistake of letting his mind wander from the homework. The second Karasuma thought of the warmness and giddiness of holding Takayama’s hand, ice ran through his veins when he sensed the other’s slight tension.

_Fuck, Fuck the world, you weren’t-shit. Shit._

Karasuma expected Takayama to remove his hand from his own, walk out of his room and never talk to him again. He knew he was being dramatic, but he _really_ wished a meteor would kill him right now.

Instead, Takayama squeezed his hand. And Karasuma, while his abilities weren’t nearly as great as Takayama’s, he could still detect a rise in the same butterflies and warmth he had just felt himself.

Honestly, Karasuma had absolutely no clue what to do. _Was this basically a mutual confession? What the fuck? Why can’t either of them ever use words like normal people? Wait, shit, we’re still holding hands._

Karasuma unclasped his fingers from Takayama’s, albeit a little too late, as Takayama still heard it all. Karasuma was burning, and he couldn’t even look over to his friend ( _were they even still that_?).

God, why is being a teenager so _weird_?

It’s silent for a good few minutes.

“Did…” Takayama begins, “Do you want to go out, sometime?”

Karasuma plops his back on his bed and covers his face.

“That’d be great.” He pipes, through muffled arms.

===

“C’mon, man, you should really do this problem.” Karasuma prods.

Takayama thinks for a second. “Nope.” He decides, nodding his head.

God, Karasuma never noticed before he started dating him just how much of a little _shit_ his boyfriend was. He probably should have guessed-he had scaled trees with him under his arm

Karasuma taps his pencil, annoyed. “What do you want in exchange? Me to ask Sagisawa to grab some more fancy chocolate?”

“…Tempting, but no.”

“What, then?”

Takayama grinned as he placed his elbow on his knee, and his chin in his hand. “A kiss?”

Karasuma felt blood rush to his cheeks. Both by the sheer bluntness of his request, and because _this_ was how Takayama wanted their first kiss to go. In exchange for goddamn _homework_. God, he’s ridiculous.

“You’re ridiculous.” Karasuma huffs. Okay, maybe he really wants to kiss him too, but dammit, Karasuma has some _dignity_.

Takayama hums. “So that’s a no?”

…Karasuma repeats. He has _some_ dignity. However, said dignity is swirling down the drain at how kissable Takayama was right now. Eden should look into this, because being a birdman must give you miraculous genes in the looks department.

“You’ll do the problems? If I kiss you?”

Takayama smiles a bit wider.

Ugh, _fine_.

“Fine.” Karasuma, who has never kissed anyone, ever, sounded way too casual to himself considering how hard his heart was beating. But whatever, fuck it. 

Before he can chicken out, Karasuma grabs Takayama by the face and pulls him into a brief kiss. When Karasuma pulls away, he can’t stop the goofy smile threatening to break onto his face.

“Ready to do homework now?”

Takayama, who has an equally goofy smile on his face, practically sings: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Karasuma pushes on each side of his boyfriend’s face. “Oh my god, I should have made you promise, I hate you so much.” Takayama laughs through his squished cheeks.

“Whoops?” He snickers, though the squished cheeks make it sound more like a _wupshh_.

“You’re lucky you’re so cute” Karasuma huffs, before quickly kissing him again and returning to his own work.

===

“Okay, we really need to study.” Karasuma giggles through Takayama’s light kisses all over his face. God, Karasuma didn’t even think he _could_ giggle. But here he was, bursting with bubbly laughter like a child.

“Correction.” Takayama grins. “ _You_ really need to study, _I_ do not.”

Karasuma couldn’t believe he’s pulling the dropout card, _again_. “You’re insufferable.” he laughs, pushing Takayama’s face away with his hand and grabbing his science notes.

===

“Wow, you two are a lot more touchy than I would’ve thought.” Sagisawa whistles.

“What does that mean?” Karasuma glares.

Sagisawa gestures to the two of them. And he _did_ have a point. Karasuma’s head was in Takayama’s lap and Takayama was playing with his hair while Karasuma was absentmindedly scrolling on his phone.

“I mean, you used to freak out if I went to wrap my arm around your shoulder, and yet here you are… _cuddling_.”

“I don’t see your point.” He did, but honestly, he just doesn’t like giving his friend the satisfaction. He much more enjoys the scoff Sagisawa replies in return.

And maybe Takayama was listening, but then again, probably not, but he chose that moment to lean down and peck the tip of Karasuma’s nose, which resulted in a grin and a small laugh from him. _God_ , his boyfriend is adorable.

“I can’t tell what’s worse, you two now or when you two were pining dumbasses.” Sagisawa points his drink towards the couple.

“Whatever, go back to pining over my best friend.” Karasuma calls back, and cackles at how Sagisawa starts coughing and blushing at the mention of his ~~totally not~~ subtle crush.

“Nevermind, go back to snogging your boyfriend.” Saigsawa says, coughing between words, causing Karasuma to laugh even harder.


End file.
